The present invention relates to geographic data and more particularly, the present invention relates to a way to represent how much a linearly extending geographic feature (such as a road) curves by using a bowing coefficient.
Various new vehicle safety systems have been developed that provide warnings to the vehicle driver or that modify operation of the vehicle (or component thereof) based upon conditions around the vehicle or other factors. Examples of some of these new vehicle safety systems include automatic headlight aiming, automatic (or adaptive) cruise control, obstacle warning, curve warning, intersection warning, lane departure warning, collision warning, and adaptive transmission shift control. Some of these vehicle safety systems use sensor equipment (e.g., radar and cameras) to detect the current state of the roadway and environment around the vehicle. Some of these vehicle safety systems use digital map data as a component. Digital map data are used to identify the location and shape of the road ahead of and around the vehicle. Digital map data can also be used to identify relatively permanent objects or features along the roads.
Included among the types of digital map data used by some of these vehicle systems are data that indicate the curvature of the road. In some digital map databases, the curvature of a road at given location is indicated by a radius of curvature value (or inverse thereof). Some vehicle safety systems use these radius of curvature data to modify operation of the vehicle. For example, an automatic cruise control system in a vehicle uses the data that indicate curvature of a road at the location along the road at which a vehicle is traveling to determine an acceptable speed range for the vehicle. After determining an acceptable speed range, the automatic cruise control application adjusts the speed of the vehicle if necessary.
The map database used in this type of vehicle safety system includes data indicating the positions of points along roads including data indicating the radius of curvature at the various points along the roads. When forming this type of map database, curvature values are computed using data that identify the coordinates of a series of points (referred to a xe2x80x9cshape pointsxe2x80x9d) through which the road passes.
Although using computed values of radius of curvature to represent road shape is satisfactory for some vehicle applications, there is room for improvement. The computed radius of curvature values can be affected by the type of function (e.g., piecewise linear, b-spline, etc.) that is used to approximate the given set of shape points. Furthermore, small changes in the approximating function may produce large changes in the curvature value. Also, small changes in the data point locations themselves may produce a large change in a computed radius of curvature.
Accordingly, there is a need for another way to represent road geometry in a geographic database.
To address these and other objectives, the present invention comprises a way to represent the curvature of a linearly extending feature, such as a road. The curvature of a linearly extending feature, such as a road, is represented using a bowing coefficient. The bowing coefficient at a given location along a linearly extending feature is determined by comparing the distance along the feature between two points on either side of the given location (or an approximation of the distance) to a straight-line distance between these same two points. Bowing coefficient data can be used by various vehicle systems that require information about the curvature of linearly extending features, such as roads upon which the vehicle is traveling.